It might well be because 'winter-ales' are commonly at the strong end of the scale, but I have lowered my own sights as far as judging a beer purely by it's ABV:London Pride now instead of ESB, for instance.
The taste and variety of English beers is what keeps me down here.
I had a few pints of something called, 'Pitchfork' a while back...another to add to the list.
